interestedly perusing the stories.  Just so, the all-photoplay program in a picture theatre, at the time of which we speak, was one made up entirely of either “dramatic"[1] or “comedy” subjects.  Films classified as “scenic,” “educational,” “vocational,” “industrial,” “sporting,” and “topical,” were not included in such a program.

[Footnote 1:  The photoplay has come to have a language of its own, which we must observe even when, as in this case, we lose somewhat in finer word-values.  In their lists of releases (photoplays released or made available for public presentation at a specified date), manufacturers usually classify as “comedy” subjects all photoplays which are without any serious dramatic moments or situations.  Thus, in the lists of releases published in the various trade journals, what are obviously “comedy-dramas”—­some of them, such as certain of the Douglas Fairbanks productions, even bordering on farce—­are classed as “dramatic” subjects, and this, apparently, because they are strongly dramatic in certain scenes.  Thus, again, genuine farce (as distinguished from “slap-stick” comedy), social comedy, burlesque and extravaganza are all classed under the head of “comedy,” just as comedy-drama, tragedy, melodrama, and historical plays are classed as “dramatic.”  These two broad classifications will be used throughout this work except where finer distinctions are needed in order to treat varieties of subjects.  The regular spoken play naturally invites these distinctions more than does the photoplay, at least at present.  In preparing your manuscript, however, you will be taught to follow the accepted form among photoplaywrights and, in writing the synopsis, after the title, specify the class of subject, as “dramatic photoplay,” “farce,” “comedy-drama,” “historical drama,” “society drama,” etc.]

True, a genuine photoplay may contain scenes and incidents which would almost seem to justify its being included in one of the foregoing classes.  One might ask, for instance, why Selig’s film, “On the Trail of the Germs,” produced about five years ago, was classified as “educational,” while Edison’s “The Red Cross Seal” and “The Awakening of John Bond” (both of which were produced at the instance of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, and had to do with the fight waged by that society against the disease in the cities), were listed as “dramatic” films or photoplays.  Anyone who saw all three of the films, however, would recognize that the Selig picture, while in every respect a subject of great human interest, was strictly educational, and employed the thread of a story not as a dramatic entertainment, but merely to furnish a connecting link for the scenes which illustrated the methods of curing the disease after a patient is discovered to be infected.  The Edison pictures, on the other hand, were real dramas, with well-constructed plots and abundant dramatic interest, even while, as the advertising in the trade